This choice: Ask Kate to wear the Mind Control Collar. • Go Back... After much debate, you eventually decide that your childhood friend Kate would be the best target for the Collar. Thus decided, you call her immediately to tell her about your purchase. As you predicted, she is willing to try it with you, if a little skeptical.
When you get to her house, she's waiting in the front yard for you, as she'd done since you were little.
"Hey, Elliot," she says, "How's it going?"
"I've been busy," you say, "trying to find a job."
"Oh, come on," she says. "Why would you want to spend all day working anyway?"
"Believe it or not," you say, "we don't all have rich boyfriends to buy us gifts all the time."
"Marcus isn't rich," she says. "Besides, maybe you just need to be more careful with your money."
"I'm very frugal!"
"Says the guy who just spent sixteen dollars on a magic choker."
"It's a collar. And for genuine magic, I'd say sixteen dollars was an excellent deal!"
"We'll see. Did you bring it?"
"Yeah."
Kate motions for you to hand it to her.
"Here."
She examines it for a moment, then shrugs and moves to put it around her neck.
"All right," she says. "Here goes—"
It is at exactly that moment that you hear a tiny metallic 'click' as the clasp snaps into place. Suddenly, you feel an intense, unbearable pain, as if your very soul is being ripped from your body. Then, in an instant, it's over and you find yourself looking the in opposite direction, out across the street instead of toward Kate's house.
Startled, you whip your head around to look for Kate. As you do so, a thick sort of brush thumps against your neck. Snatching at the apparition, you are surprised to find that it is not a brush but a neat blonde ponytail. You are even more surprised to find that it is apparently attached to your head. That's when it dawns on you. Gulping, you slowly bring your hands down to your chest, your heart sinking as they come into contact with two small, firm lumps that can only be Kate's perky breasts. Reaching back up to your neck, you run your fingers along the smooth black leather of the Mind Control Collar.
It gave you control over Kate's mind, all right—very, very direct control. Frantically scratching at the collar you scramble for the clasp—only to discover that it has somehow disappeared. The blood drains from your face as you remember the shopkeeper's warning:
"Once that collar is around someone's neck, it can never be removed—the individual will be subject you your will for the rest of their natural life."
"No," you mutter to yourself in Kate's clear, smooth voice. "No, no, no!"
Dropping to your knees, you grab frantically at your new body, pinching and pulling painfully at everything, producing several bruises but not a reversal of the Collar's magic. Rising unsteadily to your feet, you rush inside and throw open Kate's kitchen drawers, searching for scissors. Upon finding some you begin to cut at the collar, desperate to get the accursed thing off, but struggle as you might you are unable to produce so much as a scratch on the smooth leather.
"For the rest of their natural life…"
Throwing the scissors to the ground, you run to the bathroom, glaring angrily into the mirror. Staring back at you with a ferocious expression is Kate, her chest heaving and eyes red with tears. Slamming your fist into the mirror, your frustration only increases when it doesn't shatter dramatically. Sinking to the floor, you grope your new body in horror.
"I'm… I'm Kate," you say softly. "Forever…"
Illustration 
Still in shock, you wander mechanically around Kate's familiar house, suddenly made alien by the realization that this was to be your house now. When you reach Kate's room, you pick slowly through her things, seeing them—literally—with new eyes. Kate's volleyball trophies; her rugged pink laptop; the collage of photographs stapled energetically above her desk. Most of them used to feature you, Kyle and Matthew; now they're mostly of Marcus.
Eventually, the chime of the doorbell snaps you back to attention. Glancing out the upstairs window, you see who it is—who else but Kate's boyfriend, Marcus. Darting away from the window before he sees you, you consider your options. You could always just pretend not to be home, but if Kate had invited him over that might just create bigger problems than you already had. You might be better off just answering the door and pretending nothing was wrong.
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